As of 1982 in iMAX version 2, iMAX was aimed at programmers rather than application users, and it did not provide a command line or other human interface.[1] iMAX provided a runtime environment for the Ada programming language and other high-level languages, as well as an incomplete Ada compiler which was to be extended to cover the full Ada programming language in a later iMAX version after Version 2.[1]

There were at least two versions of iMAX as of 1982, Version 1 and Version 2.[1] Version 1 was undergoing internal Intel testing as of 1981 and was scheduled to be released in 1982.[3] Version 2 was modular and the programmer could choose what parts of the iMAX operating system to load; there were two standard configurations of iMAX version 2 named "Full" and "Minimal", with the minimal configuration being similar to Version 1 of iMAX.[1] As of 1982, a Version 3 of iMAX was planned for release, which was to add support for virtual memory.[1]